Personalizing article of sports memorabilia in a way that clearly associates them with their owner is widely recognized by memorabilia dealers and collectors as a way to add collectible value to the articles and as a way to make the articles more desirable to own. By merely affixing a personal attribute to a sports memorabilia article of relatively insubstantial worth, the article may be transformed into a memorabilia article of greater worth. The worth of such sports memorabilia may be further increased by having the genuine autograph (an autograph personally created by a preferred personality and not a facsimile thereof) of a famous sports personality.
The prior art encompasses affixing other types of attributes to sports memorabilia articles. Among these attributes are holograms, offset-printed identification number indicia, and facsimile autographs. Such attributes placed on all the articles and are not regarded as personality-created attributes. As a result they do not contribute as much to collectible attractiveness and collectible value as articles having distinctive personality-created attributes.
Thus, there is a need in the prior art for articles of sports memorabilia that are personalized for their owners in manner that is incorporated integrally with the articles. Accordingly, such articles have more collectible attractiveness and collectible value.